We don't even know all of the 10 items. If we know roughly the list price or then we might be able to compute. Plus, I don't think they showed how much the girls paid for everything which is another thing to consider. For example, they didn't show us how much they got the chicken feet or the worktop didn't they?

At the top of my head what Chris/Stuart bought: Bluebook, tartan, dinner plates, memory card, truffles. That's five.
Jaime: tikka, sewing machine. So he missed the worktop, chicken feet and???

How? Girls paid £160, Jaime paid £135, a massive £25!! Compare the truffles, £100 difference between the girls and boys. I don't see how if you are not biased in Jaime's favour could think a £25 difference is better than a £100?

I think the whole point tho is the task wasnt just about buying things. Buying something is easy. Anyone can buy something. The task was as much about spending the least amount of money as possible, so more a test of their ability to negotiate, as well as sourcing hard to find items. Hence the boys were able to win (I, like many people, am still not convinced about the overall result tho!)

The maths I quoted before could really be different.
All we know is that they were fined 550-150 =400 for not finding 3 items.
It is possible they found the chicken legs and plates. We dont know they didnt,
But there may have been another 2 high price items since we only know 8 of them,
So with the work top it could be £400.
Since Stuart is reading these forums maybe he is allowed to tell us what the other items were

maths didnt make sense to me either i must admit

still glad the bes thaggling team won

i like how jaimie knew his market in the tikka sale and threatened to go to southall

Didn't they have to take into account that the girls spent more money because they bought more items than the boys? They didn't show that bit?

edit: Ignore. That what the fines were for. Forgive me. I'm a tool.

In hindsight, I think the task would have been considerably fairer had Sugar given the girls some credit for buying all ten items. He could have deducted a small amount from their overall expenditure in recognition they actually had the tenacity to get all the items. Jamie got two out of his five - he did purchase them at a cheaper price than the girls - but he spent around two to three hours trying to buy a four foot kitchen worktop and was unsuccessful whereas the girls got it without any problem. It seemed a classic example of the girls losing a task, and not the boys winning it. The girls were much more tenacious which could give one of them a greater chance of winning the show. I very much doubt any of the guys will win this year.


You could argue anyone asking for a lower price is a con-man irrespective of how you 'ask' for a lower price. If the retail price of a product is 10 quid and you go into a shop and say "I want it for 5 quid" the shop owner has every right to say "go away." Martin Lewis on You're Fired tv show said that. A shop owner doesn't have to sell any of his products for less than the retail price. You could argue you're trying to con him out of the recommended retail price. Of course all products are marked up to ensure extra profit so they may be conning you! Indeed, there may be a bit of tv vanity in the sense that the cameras are in these shops so the owners may think "oooh, I'm on a BBC tv show, I have to show I'm a nice person so I'll give them a discount." Who knows, perhaps if they weren't being filmed they may have said to the contestants "go away, we don't do discounts."

Here are my workings after watching on BBCi player again

the 10th item is never mentioned in the show but i can work out the cost using my other figures.

also the chicken feet cost is never mention for the girls but they have to buy 14.5kg of them which i google and found the cost to be approx £30

for items the boys didnt get i’ve added the 50 fine plus the approx cost these using the prices the girls paid





Boys / Girls

Plates 145 120

Tikka 135 160

Chicken 80 30

Sewing 35 57

Board 160 85

Tartan 23 69

Truffle 100 200

Bluebook 62 50

Memory 10 12

Other 270 207

Late fine 0 50



Total 1020 1040





now as you will see I’ve had to assume the price of the “other item” but the girls must have paid “207” for it as thats the final figure left if you deduct every thing from their spend

I can only assume the cost price for the boys plus the fine came in at not alot more, hence how they won. just seems off that such an expensive item would never be mentioned in the show, i've emailed the BBC to find out why

They must have paid more than £207 as their total came to approx - £1094. So they paid £261 - did they pay over the odds again for the item?

Because the difference minus the lateness was £20, so the £25 he saved on the tikka would have made them win anyway. The activities of the girls team is irrelavent, Chris and Stu didnt make a huge discount anywhere, on the tartan, £60 instead of £70, plus what? a £10 knockoff on the blue book?

£25 may not have been much, but considering the bloke wanted £190 to demand a reduction of £55, and threaten to walk out if he didnt do what he wanted - and to get that price too - brilliant, Karren - not his biggest fan - was impressed to say the least.


No, conning someone is when you deceive them, lie to them. Jamie asking for a lower price in stern terms in hardly a lie, rather pin-point honesty. He's saying he wants the item, wants it from you, but wont pay more than what he beleive its worth - it was SPOT ON. Chris DID execute the sales with the made up stories, but the point was that they were stupid stories, really ridiculous. He looked like a prat because he's a bad liar and a bad actor, like the wooden lead in a shakespeare play, or part of the furniture at 'EastEnders' lately. I did think Chris had legs in the series in the first few weeks, but last night proved to me that he definitely will not win.

Digital Spy gets the first figure wrong. The boys spend £1020.50, not £1,002.50.

I still think the biggest unknown is this illusive 10th item that cost at least £200!

Computer chips were mentioned by Sugar weren't they? Not sure if in the context of being on the list or being an example of the sort of easy item he chose not to include

Computer chips appear as "memory" in Phil24b's list. I lay awake last night trying to remember the 10 items. I'm relieved to see that no-one else can!

The mystery remains

You cannot know for sure which 3 items the boys didnt get at least I dont know.
We know they got tikka, tartan, truffle, sewing, blue book.
You seem to be sure they got the memory and plates. I dont remember this.
Which leaves for 550-150=400
The board at 100 say, the chicken legs and the 'other' item at 300.

The weakness from both parties perspective is not looking up the list price and working with it.

As others have said if you knew truffles list price was £100 then you'd know that it was better to not deal at all than pay £200 for it.

So where they both appear to have failed but where the boys got lucky was in not researching the costs for these things up front.

If you watch on BBCi player you can see them buying plates and the memory chip,

I think the Brand says something like "can the plates be broken"

It my make a difference to your calculations to use the correct figures. The boys penalty was £511.50 out of a total of £1020.50. Not £550 as you keep quoting. That £39 might make a slight difference to your sums.

The boys therefore spent £509 on the 7 items they acquired. I'll leave it to you to do the rest of the maths as I can't be bothered.

I'll check back later to check your homework. Make sure to show all your workings.

To Eggshell
They were not allowed to use the internet where should they look up the list price.
What I dont understand is how they bought the board over the phone, A price must have been mentioned so they could phone to find prices.

This task never fails to amaze in the way it sorts the (sorry) boys from the girls. The guys won by default sure, but at least they had a strategy and (especially Jamie) negiotiated hard. Apollo just got into a funk about buying all items (the classic mistake)and didn't haggle enough. Technically, it might be possible to win by only buying a couple of items. At least there'd be less chance of the late fine

I don't think they got into a funk. They just didn't seem to realise how much they could get prices down. Plus they did not descend into dishonesty.

Of course, that's if you really believe that the boys actually got those prices without some form of shenanigans to which we were not party. (I don't).

I didn't understand why there was a problem getting ahold of Liz to confirm the truffle price with her. They were all in London, weren't they? They seemed to have no problem making any other of their phone calls. The whole episode and scenes seemed a bit contrived to me. Jamie is good at negotiation, though. He doesn't lose his charm. Stella's voice and attitude would grate on me as an employee. I like Joanna as well; she's a bit less sophisticated than the others but I think she has more street smarts.

Looking at google there is no way 2 metres of tartan can only cost £23
It is one thing getting something cheap, but getting a trader to give it away which is what they did is not the same.
I would suggest that there ought to be a minimum price for all regular articles and even if they go below that it wont be counted.
In normal business one would not expect products to be just given away.

I watched the BBC iplayer again and get the following figure

Girls Boys difference

Sewing Machine 57 35 22
Tikka Gold 160 135 25
Truffle 200 100 100
Tartan 59 23 36
Plates 120 145 -25
BlueBook 50 61 -11

The above six item already costed the girl £147 more which is nearly covered they £150 fine.

For the remaining 4 items
Girl team
Memory + 10th item + Chicken Feet = 128.4
4 metre board = 270

Boy team
Memory = 10
Listed price of 3 items not bough (10 unknown item + chicken feet + 4 metre board) = £361.5

The girls also bought a higher than the listed price board which is around £220

Fine
Girl = 50 (late)
Boy = 3 x 50 (item not bought) = 150

Total
Girls = 1094.40
Boys = 1020.50

The girls bought most of the stuff in a higher price and made themselves lost